


Changeling

by seekergeek



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Gen, sga flashfic challenge - folklore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-06
Updated: 2012-04-06
Packaged: 2017-11-03 03:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/376660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekergeek/pseuds/seekergeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maureen McIlroy was raised on her Granny's tales from old Ireland.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changeling

Maureen McIlroy was raised on her Granny's tales from old Ireland. Tale after tale of the heroes of old, of Cuchulainn and Finn Mac Cumhail. And tales of the tricksters, the Fair Folk, roaming the land, stealing unwary young men and women into their Otherworld, favoring the fair. She was taught, and taught well as she sat by her Gran night after night listening to the tales of old. It was a pity she hadn't listened.

Maureen was a modern woman. She was born and raised in America, land of the free, home of the brave. Not for her the leaving of fresh milk on the stoop to placate the house brownies, no. There was working at the bank and Chinese take-out instead. She lived her modern life and teased her much younger sister for being a hippy and communing with the trees instead. A throwback to Granny, she called Lisa as they braided each other's red hair as they watched tv.

She met William Patrick Sheppard at a party, looking like one of the the Tuatha de Danann, so big and so blond, a hero of old. She danced the night away with him, laughing and free. He courted her, old-fashioned, and her mother and grandmother were charmed. Lisa moaned about him being military, but in the end, was won over as well. The wedding was huge, and the dance floor heaved with blonds and auburns.

She thought her life to be nearly complete, her own fairy tale come true. All that it lacked was the patter of little feet. She was sure that would come in time as well. Wasn't that the way fairy tales ended, after all? 

The years sped by, and Maureen became friends with despair. Her life with William was wonderful except for that one thing that ate at her heart with black bile. She longed to see a child with her hair and William's eyes toddling amongst their relatives at the family gatherings. What she got was year after year of aching emptiness.

One night, as she lay dreaming, weeping over an empty cradle, cursing God, he came. His dark unnatural beauty limned with light, he asked her, what would you give, to bear a child of your own? Anything, she replied foolishly and he smiled as the light burst out of him in ropey strands to touch her. She jerked awake, shaking, but could not remember what woke her when William asked.

Maureen goes in to the doctor, thinking she has the flu. Surprised, she rejoices at the news the doctor gives her, and William weeps tears of joy when she tells him. Together, they make plans, pick names, dream of a child with her russet hair and his broad chin and blue eyes. Moira if it is a girl, they decide. John if it is a boy.

The pregnancy is hard at her age and the delivery room is chaotic as the infant exhibits fetal distress. Maureen panics as she goes under the anaesthesia, thinking that Granny should be there, guarding the baby. She wonders then why she thought that, then she is awakened from the emergency caesarean to the good news that her infant son is doing well. She dismisses her fear as silliness. Until she sees him.

Maureen watches the unnatural creature as he plays with his toys, William ignoring them both behind the newspaper. Dark, cow-licked hair over pointy ears and chin, thin and waifish where the Sheppards and McIlroys have always been broad and sturdy. Odd, muddy green eyes looking bemused at the world, too smart for its own good.

_Changeling,_ she thinks bitterly.


End file.
